Maybe I’m a little strange, but I have always enjoyed visiting cemeteries. I still have memories from my childhood of walking around the small country cemetery when we visited my grandmother’s home not too far away.
It was interesting to see the names of our relatives on the tombstones. Some of the monuments even had pictures of the deceased and information about them. Rather then being scary, the cemetery gave me a sense of peace and connection with those who lived before me.
Connection with family members
My father died when I was 16 years old as a result of a heart attack. We didn’t have a family plot in La Crosse, where I was born (my parents both came from other parts of the state). I recall helping my mother select a plot and a tombstone for the grave. Since my father loved praying the Rosary, we had a Rosary engraved on his monument.
In the years since, I have been doing genealogy research on both sides of my family. During that research, I have visited cemeteries where my ancestors are buried. It has been such a joy to be able to pray at the graves of my grandparents and great-grandparents. Fortunately parishes have been kind enough to let me search through their records, some of which are in Latin (I’m thankful for my high school Latin classes).